10 January 2021 • 3:51pm
The actor Gary Oldman was among the star-studded cast performing David Bowie classics and obscurities
Credit: Rolling Live
There was something suitably sci-fi about this weekend’s A Bowie Celebration, broadcast from Los Angeles in the middle of a dystopian pandemic (delayed 24 hours “due to difficulties in the world”). Musicians were projected onto life-sized screens arranged around other socially distanced musicians on a sound stage, then beamed by the power of the internet into the computer devices of a global audience. Somewhere, in another dimension, you could imagine Ziggy Stardust nodding his approval.
All the old dudes (and dudettes) in the backing bands assembled by pianist Mike Garson had played with the late Starman at some point in Bowie’s six-decade career. They included guitarists Gerry Leonard, Carlos Alomar, Charlie Sexton, Earl Slick and a guest spot from Bowie’s former school mate Peter Frampton, delivering a rocking blast through Suffragette City. Ian Hunter gamely reprised the 1972 classic that Bowie composed for Mott the Hoople, singing All The Young Dudes with a sprightliness that belies his 81 years.